"Has a chicken got lips?" The drunk laughed enough at his own joke to bring on another painful coughing fit.
"I've been to jail," Kevin said, "and it wasn't half bad."
"I hear you, brother." The man nodded. "I like to say the new jail here is like the finest hotel I ever seen. Room and board. Good eating." He looked at Randy's lifeless body. "Good company." He reached and patted the lifeless leg again. "That's where I met my good buddy."
"Well, you have a good day." Kevin went for a smile and was pretty sure he got it. "Buddy."
Kevin and Zoey walked back to his sisters.
Kevin turned and looked at the scene that was as sweet as it was sad. "I know we had the talk on blaming." He reached into his sister's drawstring bag and pulled out the bolas. "That old guy has so much cancer, he doesn't have many days left."
"You could tell by looking at him," Zoey asked.
"We could tell too." Kami pulled in a breath and let it out slowly as she looked at the old man who was singing to his dead friend now. "It isn't hard to see when you've seen it every day."
"Every day up close and personal," Kaley said as she sidled into a side hug with Kami.
Kevin took the sunglasses off and handed them to Kami. He pulled a pocket knife out of his pocket. He held the rope of his old toy with one gloved hand and cut it with the knife in his other gloved hand. He handed the cut rope to Zoey's gloved hand. "Go tell him you made a necklace for Randy."
Zoey nodded. "And put it on Randy." She left to do the task.
Kevin's thought spilled out as he stood next to his sisters, "It's hard to think of having a life so crappy, prison is a step up." He didn't flinch or move when Kami put her arm around him to link them all together. He was surprised by her thought that spilled out, because it was fairly relevant, but oddly strange.
"If you ever die Kevin, I am so going to keep your body." Kami's serious face stayed that way while her siblings laughed hard, but she laughed as hard when she got how funny it was.
****
A little later, they were at the entrance to the Dollar Cinema in the poor part of the city that the Rileys were familiar with when being poor was familiar to them. "Why do we have to con our way in, Zoey?" Kevin pointed to the big sign that was noticeably smudged like many signs in that part of town. "When it's the Dollar Cinema."
Zoey turned and took Kevin's hands. "You know how we get a craving for killing?" She waited for him to nod. "This is my craving. I'm trying hard to control it, but every now and then?"
"She has to satisfy the craving," Kami said.
Kevin didn't argue with that. He understood that. He realized there was a reason they were waiting. Zoey was doing it for timing.
Kaley got into the conversation, "Craving is the right word. After my first kill, it was like I was starved. Like I hadn't had a bite to eat for days. Weeks."
Kevin looked at Kaley. He saw she wasn't manic or maniacal. He realized she was trying to put it into perspective. He wanted to her to do that. Not just for her own sake. For the sake of all of them. "And now?"
Kaley smiled her appreciation for the right question to follow her thought. "Now, it's not an everyday craving ... It's wanting something special occasionally because you know it's so special ... It's like ... It's like—"
Kami leaned in with an excited look and used her lifetime of shared experiences to help with the description. "It's like the few times we had extra money and Dad could talk Mom into buying not Select steaks—"
"Not even Choice steaks—" Kaley said with a look of gratitude for her sister nailing the description so precisely.
Kevin wasn't aware his look said the same thing as Kaley's as he gladly finished it off. "But the best Prime USDA beef in the whole USA."
The three of them shared that memory.
Zoey eased in front of the nostalgic teen trio. "I need another analogy guys." She flashed her brows. "A rich princess like me had so much Prime beef she got sick of it."
"You make me sick, Princess." Kami grinned and flashed her brows back.
"Naah, she's not a Princess," Kaley said, "I think she's more like a Rich Bitch-Witch."
"You nailed it." Zoey winked at Kaley before she signaled for everyone. "Alright, you're up first Deadly Decoy." She gave Kami a pat on the rear like a football coach would give in a game.
Kami opened a button on her blouse and looked down to see how that looked.
Kevin shook his head at his pretty sister before he looked at the sort of homely boy whose job was taking the tickets and tearing them apart. He recognized the boy from the elementary school he went to before his family was lucky enough to move.
Kami did a slow seductive walk toward the homely teen boy working a bad theater job for bad pay.
Kevin shook his head at the walk out of reflex, but the sound of Zoey rustling through her purse got him out of that reaction.
Zoey held up a fresh unsharpened pencil with duct tape taped so the end was covered with the sticky side. She saw Kevin looking curiously at that. "Something a girl never leaves home without." She turned to look at her target.
Kami was engaging the boy in conversation and touching his arm as she spoke.
Kevin walked slowly and covertly alongside Kaley as they followed Zoey. They made the mistake of looking at each other and that made it hard for them to keep from laughing.
Kevin stopped at the end of the roped area in a position where he could watch Kami and Zoey.
"No, I do remember you Zeke." Kami made a gesture with her hands over her head. "You had that orange pullover sweatshirt." She did the gesture from back to front. "With the hood always pulled over."
Kevin saw the young man was thrilled the pretty girl remembered that detail. He saw Zoey sticking the pencil with tape stuck to it down into the box where the ticket halves went.
"I didn't think it was stupid," Kami said to the boy with another touch to his arm, "I thought that orange hoodie-sweater was the bomb."
Zoey eased into that conversation and opened her palm quickly to show four ticket stubs. "I kind of did your job, Dude." She gave the boy an apologetic smile. "Sorry."
Kevin was surprised he could see the boy's intent interest in his girlfriend. That made him think about something. If he was out of the picture, Zoey would pull in men who were into her, if she and Kami were out chasing men together. It gave him the shivers to think of his first love being on the prowl, so he pushed that out of his active mind. He was very surprised to see Kami holding up her phone and letting the young man get the number off it.
"Thanks, Kami!" the ticket-taker said truly gratefully.
"No problem." Kami gave him a pat on the arm that was more friendly than flirty. "Hit me up when there's a high school party." She looked at Kaley and Kevin. "We could party old school style with our old school friends."
Kevin nodded along with Kaley, but knew he wasn't enthusiastic about that. He would bag out of that. He was taunted, teased, ridiculed, and bullied mercilessly at his old grade school and junior high school. All of those kids were in high school now and he had no desire to see any of those kids ever again.
He followed the others but then he lost track of them. He was thinking about his old school when Zoey's voice took him out of that.
"Kevin!" Zoey said in a panic.
"It's okay Zoey," Kami said.
"It's okay, Buddy," Kaley said calmly as she latched on and held onto Kevin from behind.
Kevin came out of what he was in and realized what he put them through. It took a moment for him to stop walking around in a tight circle and slapping his palm to his chest. He realized Kaley was hanging on and along for the ride.
There was a small crowd of open-mouthed patrons watching in the lobby of the economy theater.
Kevin felt Kaley's arms around him as she hung on without letting up. He gently pulled her off. He saw the look on Zoey's face and wished he hadn't. She saw him like that the first day at the home her family bought from his mother. That day was different
. There wasn't a crowd around. This was another first in their relationship. The first time she would be humiliated in public by him. By what he had. By what he was. He saw her with no reaction on her face, good or bad. He guessed that was bad. He saw a lot of the people were staring. He wanted to get the eyes off him. He wanted to get them out of the picture. That way he could deal with her reaction. Deal with the possible good or probable bad. He stepped and held out his arms. "Thank you. I'm performing nightly at Nick's Nightclub and Friday nights are Ladies' Nights with half-off well drinks and dollar beers."
Most of the watching faces became smiling faces. A few were laughing faces that seemed to be laughing with the odd young handsome man instead of at him.
Zoey rushed and almost knocked Kevin over with a hug. "Promise not to take this the wrong way, Honey?"
He kissed the top of her head and lingered to savor the smell. "Sure."
"You're an idiot."
He enjoyed a lingering hug with her before she pushed and pulled to get out of it quickly.
"Oh, hell no!" Zoey said more angrily than she usually said when she was angry.
Kevin ran after Zoey with his sisters behind.
The three Riley teens got around the corner in time for the showdown.
"You lecture me on stealing and you're sneaking into a dollar movie?" Zoey said with her hands on her hips.
Kevin and his sisters got to Zoey's sides and they had to hold their sides from the laughter at catching her parents, their mother, and their uncle sneaking into a movie.
****
The four adults and four teenagers sat in the biggest booth in the old diner that was a favorite old dining spot for the Rileys. "Is that—" Frank tried to remember the name.
"That's Clara, our favorite waitress." Kate smiled fondly at the old woman who was unlikely to see her through the thick glasses she wore along with her perfectly pressed white serving uniform.
"She must eighty-something," Frank opined.
Kevin took a good look at the woman. He remembered how kind she was to him over the years. Maybe she was as intuitive as she was kind. Whenever he had a bad day, she always seemed to give him something extra special to make it a better day.
Frank leaned forward to get Taylor's attention. "Clara has a habit of paying more attention to the handsomest man in the booth."
"How would you know that, Uncle Frank?" Kaley winked to punctuate that.
"You know, Niece, I'm reworking my will." Frank winked back.
"I mean, of course you would know that," Kaley said.
"I'm just giving you a heads-up, Taylor," Frank said.
Clara came over and was thrilled to see the Rileys again. Before she took the orders for everyone else, she leaned over and put an aged hand on Kevin's shoulder. "I think I could get my new cook to whip up some franks and beans and mac & cheese for my handsome young man."
"You're as sweet as you're beautiful, Miss Clara." Kevin leaned over and gave her a hug. He loved hugging that old woman. It brought back old memories that were good memories.
Clara got the orders from everyone else quickly and managed a few more pats to Kevin's back in the process.
Taylor leaned on his elbows on the table. "I think we know who gets the handsome man award tonight."
Zoey leaned on her elbows on the table. "Yeah, and if that old broad doesn't back off, I know who'll get the boxing woman award." She pointed at herself.
After the laughter subsided, Beth picked up the one-page drink menu and then looked around. "We didn't order drinks."
Taylor pulled the menu over, so he could look. "First, we have to negotiate or draw straws over who's the designated driver."
Kevin shot his hand up like he was answering a hard question in class like he always did. "Me!"
Kate nodded, but had to think it through. "I'm okay with that ... And you kids have two cars ... I don't know what's up with that—"
Frank entered the conversation. "My place is out of the way, so I can call a ride."
"Stay with us tonight, Buddy." Taylor grinned at the teenagers. "After all, a child-free adult-night is a rare commodity."
Beth let the chuckles and giggles die down before she patted Taylor on the back. "Aah, you're having your little friend over for a sleep-over."
Kate patted Frank on the back. "I think we can stack the single beds in the one bedroom to make you little guys bunkbeds."
Kevin laughed as hard as his sisters and his girlfriend at that.
He felt Zoey nudging him with her elbow.
A middle-aged stocky man wearing a T-shirt and jeans that seemed to match his crewcut hair and red angry face, gripped a middle-aged woman's hand as he pulled her out of the diner, "You can't bitch about my drinking if I'm drinking at home."
Kevin noticed Zoey had alerted his sisters to that, but the adults didn't notice anything.
"Kevin." Kate patted his hand and waited to get his attention, like she was used to that particular kind of waiting. "I saw Ellen Barton at the theater on the way out." She gave him the understanding smile she had a lot of practice with. "I'm glad Clara's giving you your comfort food tonight."
Kevin nodded at his mother. He saw the looks on Beth and Taylor were the only different looks around the table. He wanted to change that. He wanted to include them. "Mom, I don't think Beth and Taylor are like family, I think they are family." He could tell that was the right thing to say when their looks changed, and he felt Zoey's hand taking his under the table.
Kate explained. "Kevin had an incident at the Dollar Cinema."
"And by incident she means I was stomping around in a circle and flapping my arms." He shrugged. "It was a bad one, but at least I wasn't into a repetitive word loop."
Beth nodded and gave Kevin a kind look of compassion, but she was struggling to hold her tears in.
Taylor nodded and held up the drink menu. "Sounds like me after my fourth Scotch."
The raucous laughter around the table felt good to Kevin. When he looked down, his dinner was there.
Clara gave Kevin a sweet peck on the cheek before she explained to the others, "My boy's meal was up sooner and I'm his favorite waitress, not his mother. That means I get to play favorites."
Kevin used that as an excuse to pull her in for another sweet old woman hug that hit the spot as much as he was sure his comfort food meal would.
The others took covert looks at Kevin that he wasn't aware of. Not because of what he had, but because of the delicious meal he was devouring with more gusto than the average teenaged boy would.
In a short time, big trays carrying the platters, and a helper to help carry the big trays, arrived with Clara to bring everyone else their meals.
Kevin felt Zoey's fingernails digging into him. He looked the way her head was facing. The man with the crewcut was in the small lot on the side of the building. He was in his truck in the driver's seat. Kevin looked long enough to see him slap the woman hard in between yelling at her. He edged out of the seat. "I have to use the bathroom."
Zoey, Kaley, and Kami looked at him expectantly.
Kevin got that and was glad he got that. He pointed at the pile of small fried shrimp on Kami's plate. "That looks like bait." He made sure not to make eye contact with the young women. He knew it was clever, but he couldn't show that.
Zoey got up and let Kami out.
"I need to freshen up," Kami said.
Kevin heard Kami's footsteps behind him as he walked. It was funny. He could see a diagram of the old diner in his head. He knew there was the back door at the end of the hallway where the bathroom doors were. He was pretty sure he could sketch an accurate diagram of that if he had to.
He felt Kami's hand gripping his wrist as he felt the night air from the back door he opened.
"A lot of scaring, a little beating, but no killing, alright little Bro?"
He nodded as he stepped out. "Alright."
****
The two teenagers realized the man was yelling so loudly, they could w
hisper quietly as they squatted behind his truck. Kevin pointed out there were no other cars. "I think that asshole picked this empty lot on purpose."
"Yeah, it's the wife-beater lot," Kami whispered back.
The yelling stopped, and the only sounds were the woman whimpering and the man swigging.
Kevin popped up to take that information in before he squatted and pulled their heads closer together, so they could whisper.
"The woman's hunkered down. If I sneak up on the dude and can pound him down—"
"I'll tell her to keep down and make sure she keeps down," Kami answered.
Kevin nodded and gave her a quick pat on the back. He walked in a squat to keep himself low. There was a point where he was stopping to stop the gravel sounds and waiting for the man to take a big swig and say 'Aah' after that. He got to a point right under the window.
"Funny, Bitch—" The man had to stop to let a loud disgusting burp out. "You ain't bitching now."
It was instantaneous and amazing to Kevin, how much he saw in his mind, before he saw what was hidden from his squatting view. It was like he was looking at a blueprint mapping out his attack plan. He saw the position of the man and the woman. He saw the layout of the truck interior in great detail. He saw the lines, angles, and curves of the motions that should render the man motionless. He knew the man would be making a slow turn of his head back to the bottle. He timed it perfectly.
The man turned his head and opened his mouth for the bottle.
Kevin grabbed the man's head with both hands. He slammed it hard on the hard ledge of the open window. He heard his sister speaking to the woman in a calm tone with a cockney accent as he slammed the man's head again and again.
"Stay down, Sweetie," Kami said, "and after my matey is done making fish and chips out of that bloke's head, you can boot him out on his stinky ass, or wait until he comes to, to give him a talking to."
Kevin knew the man was unconscious, but he gave him a few lighter head slams for good measure and because it felt good that night.
"Stay down until we drive off, then you can do whatever you want with that wanker, and with your life," Kami said in her accent to the beaten and beaten down woman.
The Killing Rileys- First Love, First Kills Page 14